Burt Award For African Literature Competition...

                                                                                  

                                                  

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE 5^TH BURT AWARD FOR AFRICAN LITERATURE COMPETITION                  

Submission and Evaluation Criteria for the Burt Award for African Literature - Tanzania.

The Children’s Book Project for Tanzania (CBP) and CODE, with the generous support of Canadian philanthropist William Burt, are pleased to invite submissions for the 2012 Burt Award for African Literature.

CODE and CBP have been working together for 20 years to support literacy programming in Tanzania. The Burt Award for African Literature is a literacy prize that recognizes excellence in young adult fiction from Africa. The Award is currently offered in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya.

The Objectives of the Award:

1.      To recognize excellence in young adult literature from Africa.

2.      To support and motivate the development of supplementary reading materials for upper primary school students at a critical stage of learning; the transition period between mother tongue and English medium instruction.

3.      To strengthen the English language skills of youth and help foster an enthusiasm for and love of reading.

4.      To stimulate and support the African publishing industry and the development of African literature.

5.      To increase the stock of English readers in established school libraries and other libraries in Tanzania.

Submission Criteria

To be considered for the Award:

1.      Authors must be residents and nationals of Tanzania. Winning authors from the previous year’s competition are not permitted to submit a manuscript until the following year in order to avoid monopoly of the Award by the same.

2.      Eligible entries must be in a manuscript form and submitted by publishers on behalf of authors. A publisher is eligible to submit up to 3 manuscripts annually for the competition. Publishers and authors are expected to have collaborated on the development of the manuscripts prior to submission to ensure that submitted manuscripts are of the highest quality.

3.      Manuscripts must be written in English.

4.      Manuscripts must be prose fiction and written in chapter form.

5.      Manuscripts must contain content and language appropriate for upper primary school pupils, thus youth between 12 to 15 years old.

6.      Manuscripts must be thought-provoking and original.

7.      Manuscripts should be between 20,000 to 40,000 words (approximately 80-160 pages) in length.

8.      Manuscripts must be typewritten, double spaced and set in Times New Roman font, size 12.

Criteria for Winning Manuscripts

Winning stories will:

1.      Have literacy merit with a well-developed plot and engaging characters with whom young readers can identify.

2.      Demonstrate a solid command of the English language through clear, cohesive language use and proper sentence structure, vocabulary, and punctuation.

3.      Have a strong narrative style and make effective use of strong imagery, lively dialogue, and vivid descriptions.

4.      Engage and entertain young readers, arouse their interest and curiosity, and keep them turning pages.

5.      Reflect issues and challenges of concern to contemporary Tanzanian youth.

6.      Inspire Tanzanian children and youth to read.

Manuscripts which have the potential to evolve into a series or sequel will be welcome.

Notification of Winning Submissions:

Manuscripts will be reviewed and assessed according to the criteria set out above by a panel of qualified judges. The jury will determine a shortlist of titles eligible to win prizes. Shortlisted titles will be further revised and edited by the authors and their publishers. First, Second and Third Prize winners will only be determined once the books are edited, approved by the jury and CODE, and published into books. There is no guarantee that shortlisted titles will win prizes. Only those titles that meet the highest quality standards will be deemed worthy of winning prizes. Prizes will be awarded at an Award ceremony once the manuscripts are published.

 Awards for Winning Authors

 Winning authors will be awarded monetary prizes and will work with their publisher to develop their book for publication.

  1^st    Prize    CAD $ 9,000

  2^nd   Prize    CAD $ 7,000

  3^rd   Prize     CAD $ 5,000

Guaranteed Purchase of Winning Titles

As part of the Award, publishers will receive a guaranteed purchase of a portion of approximately three-fifths of the copies produced. Those copies purchased by CBP through the Award will be distributed to the Children’s Book Project’s network of supported schools and other community libraries. The publishers will be responsible for marketing the other approximately two-fifths of the copies printed to the general public. Winning titles could also be eligible for publication in Canada.

Deadline for Submission:

All manuscripts must be submitted By Publishers to the Children’s Book Project office by 30^th   March, 2013 at 4:00pm. The publisher should submit one hard copy and one soft copy of each

manuscript to childrensbooktz@gmail.com. 

For more information about the Award, please contact:

Children’s Book Project for Tanzania.

Email: childrensbooktz@gmail.com

Website: www.cbp.or.tz and www.codecan.org

NOTE:  CBP invites writers who need assistance in promoting their writing to publishers to contact CBP to help facilitate manuscripts being sent to publishers for their consideration.